Life in the Big Brick House by Phillips Lisa

Author:Phillips, Lisa [Phillips, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2015-07-18T07:00:00+00:00

Be Careful What You Wish For

“Where there is great love, there are always wishes.” ~Willa Cather

Recently while watering the tomato plants I am genetically engineered to grow, I saw a young couple across the street bringing home their third baby boy. Their oldest is six, and their middle son only eighteen months old. As I watched the young mother follow her husband who toted the infant carrier into their house, I decided she was my hero. I had two boys four years apart, and still was sure most days when they were young I would lose my mind.

I smiled as I aimed the sprayer attached to the hose at my hydrangeas. I could still clearly recall the first time I got out of the house after Nick was born. He was nearly three weeks old. It took that long for his father to convince me our baby would not stop breathing, just because I could not see his face. I decided I would run to Wal-Mart to pick up a pack of diapers. It wouldn’t take more than an hour, so I would be back in plenty of time to nurse the baby.

As I pulled open the door of the store, I realize there was a dried glob of spit-up dangling from a lock of my hair, and the T-shirt I wore was on inside out. I saw that as a guarantee I would run into at least half a dozen people I knew. That was the day moms always wearing sunglasses and ball caps suddenly made sense to me. I hurried back to the baby section, grabbed two huge packs of diapers, and ducked my head as I made my way toward the registers. As usual there were long lines at all of them. I kept my head down, praying nobody I knew saw me. It was about then a baby a couple of aisles over started wailing. A moment later I felt a trickle sliding along my upper abdomen. I looked down to see wet patches over each breast that were slowly getting bigger. Nobody ever told me a nursing mother’s milk might start flowing even if it wasn’t her baby crying.

I turned the hose on my roses as I laughed at the first of many lessons I learned thanks to my children. By the time Austin came along, I was much more proficient at motherhood. But, I still kept a pack of birth control pills clenched tightly in my hand as I chased around a five year old and a one year old. And it wasn’t like I was a young mommy, as my OBGYN liked to remind me.

There were endless hours of playing hide and seek, and T-ball and board games. I remember thinking if I could have one hour to myself…just one precious hour. These days I have to jump up and down in front of their PS4 to get my boys to pay me any attention. The last time we played Scrabble, I know it was only because they knew I wanted to, not because they did.

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